First Day of School 2017 (First Grade and Pre-School)

Today Link started preschool and Mattimeo started first grade! It's a holiday, but the kids were eager to start, it's easier for me to have a full week rather than cram it all into a four day week, and Daddy was home to be a part of it. This year we are using Oak Meadow as our main curriculum again, but we are supplementing with the Handwriting Without Tears Curriculum (both kids), Build Your Own Library (for Meo), and Wee Folk Art (for Link). Link also has a weekly activity from Slow and Steady Get Me Ready. It may end up being too much stuff to do, but I've tried to plan it so they still have a lot of free play time to play, and lots of time for friends, field trips, and extracurricular activities. I will adjust if we need to. Here is a glimpse of how today went.

Woke up, got dressed, and played with their animal figurines while breakfast was being made.

After breakfast we had opening circle. We light a candle to start the day, say some poems, sing songs, move around and make music. Link especially likes this time of day. I tried to take a video of how it tends to be...Meo usually sings more but he was preoccupied with Link's cool drumming and plotting how he can have a turn.

Then we did our handwriting without tears stuff, which usually only takes about 15 minutes a day. We listened to songs about using your right hand to shake and introduce yourself. Practiced experience different senses. Then listened to songs for/with our wooden blocks that Link will be using to start forming letters. Meo's favorite part was when he got to try honey. Link had a lot of fun doing the activities along with the music.

Next we had our language arts time. Link had free time and chose to take out play dough and make snakes and donuts with Daddy. I am going to try to have us listen to a new famous composer each week and today we listened to Guillaume Dufay while we worked and played.

Last night, I read Meo our story for the letter "A" and today his job was to retell the story. He also had to draw capital and lowercase A in picture form.

Then we had snack time and they had free play time. Meo and Link wanted to play with play dough some more.

We took the dogs for a walk on our trail in the woods. We talked about signs that autumn is coming. We practiced identifying some plants we saw and the difference between deciduous and coniferous trees. We collected leaves and flowers to bring home and press. They found lots of cool stuff and even caught some frogs.

At home, Meo and I pressed the leaves and flowers we collected in the forest.

Then Meo played, while Robbie made lunch and Link and I harvested sumac from around our yard. We broke up the berries, covered them in water and steeped it for about an hour. Then we strained the liquid, added honey, and chilled it. The result was a delicious, vitamin C pumped fruity drink resembling lemonade.

After lunch, the boys did a little bit of yoga and breathing exercises to calm down a bit. Then we read a picture book and some of Meo's history book (Story of the World). Then Link took a nap and Meo rested for a little bit. He got up out of his bed early though so I didn't get much of a break! I spent the time instead teaching Meo how to knit. It is a difficult thing to teach! He is starting to be able to do it already though and I'm sure he will get the hang of it soon. It will be fun to be able to sit down and knit with him while Link naps.

When Link woke up we enjoyed an afternoon snack of popcorn and watched an episode of "Tumble Leaf".

For math this week we are playing games, puzzles, and mazes. So today we played "Sleeping Queens". It was our first time playing and we all enjoyed it so much that we played three times. Poor Link never won a game and was sad about that (Meo and I won the first two, so we switched teams and Link and I lost). He still liked the game though.

Then we had a recorder lesson. We are just learned the note B this week, so we did the exercise a few times, and then they mimicked some of my rhythms and had fun with it.

Part of his health assignment this week is to talk about how bodies grow. So we measured each other on our big wall ruler, we measured silly things like our ears and hair. Then we made hand prints to compare our hand sizes.

That pretty much concluded the school portion of the day. Robbie made dinner while I did a little workout. Meo and Link played outside with the girls who live next door. They have been coming over quite a bit recently and the boys really enjoy their company even though they are a little older than Meo.

After dinner, we showered, and Meo practiced his violin for a bit while I read stories to Link. Finally, we all started a new novel together "The Tale of Despereaux". I really enjoyed the first few chapters and the boys did as well.

I feel like today was a well balanced day, and the kids were happy and had fun. It helps that I had everything prepared and ready to go. So hopefully I can keep on top of things so other days go as smoothly. I think we are all excited to be learning, creating, and exploring again. Not that we weren't during the summer, but it seems like the boys do well when we have some planned out activities at home. Which is why school is great!

Home school Life; a February day

I thought I'd post about a typical home schooling day so we can remember what kindergarten and preschool was like for these boys. I haven't been posting as much as I used to because I have been focused on doing yoga and reading more novels in the evening when I'd normally blog. But here is a quick one about our Tuesday.

The boys woke up and played and eventually I convinced myself to emerge from my warm covers to make breakfast before they realize they are hungry and start raiding the cupboards. We had homemade muesli (Greek yogurt, rolled oats, fresh strawberries, sliced almonds, dried dates, and honey). After we brushed our teeth and got dressed we were ready to start school.

We always begin our day with "opening circle". We light a little beeswax candle, recite some poems to welcome the day and sing songs. Today we read the poem "Queen of Hearts", sang "Wheels on the Bus" with personalized verses (the Meo's on the bus say I want a cookie for example), some fish and bubble song I don't know the name of, and "Mary Had a Little Dragon" (the boys made this one up...it's to the tune of Mary had a little Lamb but there is a dragon whose scales were red as fire and the children in the school run away to see a dragon in school). Then the boys blow out the candle together which they look forward to.

After that we did our math work. We have been studying different shapes and forms and today we reexamined circles and spheres by playing with bubbles then drawing pictures of bubbles. I always draw along with Meo so that he feels encouraged and has an example of me taking my time and being thoughtful with my work so that he can mimic that work ethic. He really enjoyed this drawing and was very proud of the end result. Link drew some circles too.

Then we worked on our handwriting assignment for the day from our Handwriting without Tears curriculum. Today he copied a short poem about a spider that he really got a kick out of. His writing is coming along nicely and he is getting better at remembering the sounds each letter makes to read words occasionally.

After a banana snack, we packed up the car with our snow gear and an excited puppy to go explore a new trail with our friends.

The kids spent most of the time sliding down hills on their butts then struggling to climb back up the slippery slope. Meo and Soren pretended to be super heroes of course and had sticks as weapons for the duration.

Link used a partially gnawed tree to help himself up the steep slope.

Even Inga couldn't resist some fun sliding.

After that we stopped at Orchard Ridge Farm to have a snack of fresh homemade donuts and visit the animals. We were especially excited to meet the piglets that were born two days ago. They were so darn cute, I could barely stand it!

The boys got a kick out of chasing a loose chicken back and forth. Eventually we had them stop so the chicken wouldn't be super stressed out, but they were laughing pretty hard.

Then the turkeys came out and started running along side the boys and gobbled at them which made them laugh even more.

We are running low on food in the house so I picked up some fresh eggs then headed home for lunch. Meo went sledding in the front yard while I unpacked the car. He had fun until he landed in a shallow pool of water and got soaked. So I helped him warm up inside with some dry clothes and scrambled eggs, peanut butter and honey toast, and oranges.

Then we read a picture book and the boys fell asleep for a little nap.

After nap they enjoyed a Larrabe fruit and greens bar while I enjoyed a second cup of coffee. We did Meo's health assignment for the day at the same time. This week we are learning about support systems. Yesterday he drew pictures symbolizing some of the people he loves and today we talked about all the people who have taught him things. Then we discussed something he would like to be taught and who could teach him. He said he would like to learn how to ice skate really well and fast and that his friend Greyson could teach him.

We finished up his school work for the day with science. He has been observing the growth of this sweet potato in water for 12 weeks and drawing it in his lesson book. He also made a terrarium and he had a look at that to see if it is surviving and changing in any way.

Meo had violin lesson today. He worked a lot on keeping his violin held high (sometimes the violin gets pretty droopy) as well as did some pitch and rhythmn reading exercises.

Back at home, they had a carrot stick and humus snack and then they wanted to play the game Zingo together. This is one of their new favorite games.

Finally, Daddy came home. Meo decided to lounge on the couch and look through a new book we got today while I decided to lounge upstairs and read my novel. They made pizza for dinner, and ended the night with a bubble bath and reading lots of books together.

Have I mentioned how much I love these guys? Homeschooling keeps me busy, but it's a lot of fun and I'm so fortunate to be able to watch them develop and grow and learn everyday.

And now one of them has tip-toed into my bedroom and fell asleep snuggling my pajamas.